{"id":24976,"date":"2020-08-26T19:22:07","date_gmt":"2020-08-27T03:22:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/coachestrainingblog.com\/becomeacoach\/?p=24976"},"modified":"2023-05-19T19:26:08","modified_gmt":"2023-05-20T03:26:08","slug":"what-is-coaching-my-experience-of-the-co-active-coaching-model","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coachestrainingblog.com\/becomeacoach\/what-is-coaching-my-experience-of-the-co-active-coaching-model\/","title":{"rendered":"What Is Coaching? (And my Experience of The Co Active Coaching Model)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Whether or not they can answer \u201cwhat is coaching?<\/a>\u201d, every student at the Coactive Training Institute (CTI) begins just like everyone else: in Fundamentals.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The<\/figure>\n\n\n\n\n\n

Walking into the classroom is your first test of strength and open-mindedness. The room is comparable in size to a small stage but is barely full. The new students\u2019 eyes narrow and drift suspiciously to the circle of chairs on the furthest side. This circle is only adorned by a few diagram posters, hung with blue putty (\u201ctacky\u201d), and the seats are plain and unassuming. They have neither armrests, nor desks. How will the class take notes? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A waft of freshly brewed coffee inevitably pulls the new arrivals away from their confusion. At a refreshment table opposite the chairs, they begin to pour warm coffee into styrofoam cups. As pale sunlight illuminates the whites and greens of the walls, murmured \u2018good morning\u2019s and half-smiles quickly evolve into eager conversations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lorry Schneider is as entrenched in his conversation as the students are in their own, so it would be hard to pick him out as the group\u2019s leader if you didn\u2019t know whom to look for. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The student he\u2019s chatting with is explaining \u2013 in answer to Schneider\u2019s question \u2013 why she chose to take a \u201ccoaching class\u201d, and he looks as enthralled as if she were telling him how her sister had sprouted wings and married the Queen of England. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Schneider\u2019s had practice getting people to open up. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He began his own coach training through CTI<\/a> in October of 1998. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So\u2026 What Is Coaching?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Schneider is a Co-Active Coach.<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A coach\u2019s job is to guide people from where they are, to where they want to be. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Put simply, he meets with clients to talk through their problems. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhere you are\u201d and \u201cwhere you want to be\u201d are vague notions, but coaching seeks to fill in the blanks. When coaches discuss a client\u2019s challenges, their aim is to establish what a client doesn\u2019t like about their current life, and then develop actionable goals to change that. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

CTI is an institution that trains and certifies coaches, through the \u2018Co-Active Coaching Model.\u2019 \u2018Fundamentals<\/a>\u2019 is the first of their five core classes. After a student has completed these, they move on to the CTI certification process, which provides international recognition. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Working with a coach is often a process of omnipresent, never-ending, exhausting self-reflection, self-improvement, and self-awareness. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So why do so many people swear by it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My First Day of Co Active Coaching Training<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

When I took \u2018Fundamentals\u2019 in November of 2018, I had to learn to be as open to change as clients were expected to be. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It wasn\u2019t long before my group learned that there were no desks in our classroom because we weren\u2019t going to do much writing.  Most of the space was empty because it was there for us to practice in. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One afternoon, we all stood in a circle in this space, wearing name tags\u2026 which labeled us with a coaching skill. The only exempt student was standing in the centre of us all, as our collective client. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When our teacher pointed at someone, they were supposed to take over the coaching from the previous student and use their coaching skill to improve the client\u2019s experience. We went on for ten minutes, teasing details out of our peer. Each student stepped into the circle when it was their turn and made space with a cheery smile when someone else took over. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The skills on our tags were not complicated, just as the steps of a dance are simple \u2013 until, one after another, they form a waltz. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
Individual coaching techniques are like dance steps that assemble to form a ‘waltz’.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A woman across from me was labeled with \u2018Acknowledging.\u2019 This meant she needed to recognize the client\u2019s situation, which would help them feel seen and understood. For example, \u201cIt must be hard to prioritize your personal goals when you live with three other people.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each new player swayed cautiously into the limelight, and our chatter, encouragements, and suggestions made up the music they stepped to. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The man to my right had sloppily written \u2018Silences and Pauses\u2019 on his tag. His skill was to not rush into his response and allow silence to fall, so that a client could absorb a powerful thought or feeling. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each student\u2019s new skill left a mark on the waltz\u2019s shape. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

My own tag had an acronym: AWGO, or, Articulate What\u2019s Going On. This skill involved repeating what the client had just said\u2026 back to them, concisely. We were taught that AWGO often triggers a new thought, perspective, or idea from a client. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What I didn\u2019t realize would happen simultaneously with learning to be a better coach, is that I would receive skills to be a better human.”<\/p>Jonathan Carroll<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

As in a ballroom, where new steps could be remembered and passed on, we too would recall each skill clearly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Devotees of the coactive coaching model swear by these teachings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I met one such student, Jonathan Carroll<\/a>, during this Fundamentals class. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a long-time coach, Carroll joined the CTI training to hone his skills. Now, he has recently celebrated becoming  fully certified Co-Active coach. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat I didn\u2019t realize would happen simultaneously with learning to be a better coach, is that I would receive skills to be a better human,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Jonathan
Jonathan Carroll recently became a certified Co-Active Coach.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am a different person since receiving this training and use what I\u2019ve learned every day, whether with my clients or with others. I feel very lucky to be living my purpose, on purpose!\u201d Carroll\u2019s energy and passion for the coaching discipline are near giddying and certainly contagious. He exemplifies what CTI wishes to instill in its students: finding your purpose and making it a reality. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Coaching Premise – CTI Style<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Finding your purpose is the kind of question that humans have been wrestling with for centuries.<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019ve been theorizing about purpose, be it our own, or the purpose of our species, since Plato, who determined that our purpose was to obtain knowledge. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The coactive model<\/a> takes a humbler route, suggesting that everyone has a unique purpose. Co-Active coaches utilize a few concepts in order to learn how to discover what their client\u2019s purpose is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The idea that \u201cpeople are naturally creative, resourceful, and whole\u201d is a cornerstone of the co-active coaching toolkit. <\/p>\n\n\n\n